The Politics of School Funding: How State Political Ideology is Associated With the Allocation of Revenue to School Districts.

This article investigates how state political ideology influences the allocation of K-12 education funding across school districts in the United States from 1999 to 2015. Using a nationwide dataset, the study finds that more politically liberal states tend to provide higher per-pupil state funding overall and allocate relatively more resources to districts with larger Black student populations and those in urban areas. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between district poverty levels and state funding does not significantly differ by state ideology, and liberal states also tend to allocate more state funds to districts with higher local property tax rates. These findings highlight that while both liberal and conservative states prioritize certain district characteristics such as poverty and rural location, liberal states emphasize racial equity and urban district support more strongly in their funding decisions.